My favorite hosting company, Slicehost, just redesigned their site today. I didn't particularly mind their old site, and in fact found it quite welcoming and reminiscent of their down-to-earth/developer-to-developer mindset, but this design is pretty sleek and I like it quite a bit.Or maybe they don't. But at least their AIR for Linux team does! :)
Using the latest pre-release build, I noticed that one of my own AIR apps essentially broke the package manager. After reporting the problem through the appropriate channel, I managed to fix the issue... though it wasn't a pretty solution.
I promptly relayed this information to Adobe who requested to see my AIR app and its source. A couple minutes after sending the files to them, they replied saying the error was caused by an apostrophe in my application's name, and that the problem didn't occur for them after removing the apostrophe.
I replied, telling them that I had no issues on Windows or Mac with the apostrophe, at which point they told me that the bug was now logged in their database and they would be sure to fix it.
(In case you can't tell, I'm purposefully being pretty vague vis a vis the NDA I signed)
Having not been involved in any prerelease testing for proprietary software of this level, I'm not sure if this kind of intimate communication between the developers and the testers (which there are more examples of throughout the prerelease site) is normal, but honestly it's a relief for someone like me to have quick and direct contact with the actual developers.
Regardless, Adobe's made one Linux person very happy.
March 24th, 2008 / Tags: adobe, air, linux / TrackbackEven though we've known it was coming, I was still surprised when I read this afternoon that Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft and formerly richest man in the world, had dropped to number three in the world.
I was expecting him to drop to second, behind Carlos Slim. But... Carlos Slim isn't even the richest person in the world. Warren Buffett, long-time friend of Bill Gates and richest man prior to Bill Gates' reign, is now the richest man in the world again.
I'm wondering if this signals the beginning of the end for Microsoft. Its dominance has come as its leader is the richest man in the world. It's dominance is starting to fade to Apple, Adobe, Google, open source, and Linux in really unprecidented numbers for the company, and its leader didn't only drop one place - he dropped two places in Forbes' world's richest man list.
I think the connection is there and is very clear. This could be the real "beginning of the end" of Microsoft's dominance.
March 5th, 2008 / Tags: microsoft, bill gates, apple, linux / Trackback